For anyone who knows me or follows this blog for any length of time, you know I love podcasts. What does that have to do with Domain Name Sales? Plenty!
Domain name evaluation and appraisals
Michael Cyger
aka Domain Sherpa
Michael Cyger over at DomainSherpa.com also produces a podcast and one thing he has been doing for a while now is Domain Name Portfolio Reviews. He takes 50 names from two regular Joe Domainers and has a panel of 4 experts he calls Sherpas review the names.
The Sherpas provide honest (brutally honest, which I like) feedback, and possibly pricing recommendations and appraisals. Great stuff. They have even made real time offers for names they love!
Learning from other domain owners
Submitting your portfolio to DomainSherpa isn’t for the faint of heart because most of the time the portfolio of names get trashed with the exception of a few names – maybe 5 out of 50 are keepers – MAYBE. You would have to be open and willing to truly listen if it was your portfolio. I have submitted my 50 a while back and if it ever does get reviewed it will get thrashed – I plan to do a post where I try to use what I’ve learned listening to them to review my own portfolio… I will update this post if I do my own review – would be fun to do that before they did and compare results if it were to happen 
The great thing is that you get to see what other people submit – you have to assume it is their best stuff knowing what is going to happen. Then you get to hear what the Sherpas have to say about the names. You can really learn a lot about the way truly successful domain name entrepreneurs think about domain names and their business.
Like most things with a subjective factor, sometimes a couple of the sherpas like names while others hate them. Sometimes that has to do with the way each Sherpa does business – if they specialize in brandables they might like something that another who specializes in product domains or geo domains doesn’t, but in general they like most of the same names.
Domain name themes
A more recent variation of the portfolio review are domain name themes. Instead of 50 names from two domainers, Michael or one of the Sherpas will select a specific topic or theme for the next review. The best thing is anyone can submit one domain name within that niche and get it reviewed and possibly sold.
So far, the portfolio of domains submitted for these have been more solid than the 50 from two domainers – you have a broader group of domainers with a more specific topic so it makes sense you would have better overall quality.
Some great names are usually included along with some good to average names. This helps you recognize and appreciate what separates a good name from great names.
I always seem to learn better by example so these type reviews are priceless. The advice the Sherpas dole out in casual conversation is phenomenal! If you listen closely you will learn a lot about domain names AND business in general.
Who are the domain name experts?
Michael Cyger is successful in his own right, but he always has icons of the industry on the panel. The four regular sherpas are listed below as well as Michael – their credentials are too long to list here so I’ll just add a link to one or two of their primary sites and their Twitter:
- Adam Dicker
- AdamDicker.com
- DNForum.com
- NicheWebsites.com
- Twitter – AdamDicker
- Mike Berkens
- TheDomains.com
- MostWantedDomains.com
- Twitter – TheDomains
- Page Howe
- JoeDomains.com
- DomainOutlet.com
- Twitter – JoeDomains
- Rick Schwartz aka the Domain King
- RicksBlog.com
- Look at Rick’s about page to see why he is the king
- Twitter – DomainKing
- Michael Cyger aka the Domain Sherpa
- DomainSherpa.com
- His full bio and background story is fascinating
- Twitter – DomainSherpa
When one of these Sherpas can’t make the show he will often have a guest Sherpa who is also an industry icon! They have all been excellent to this point.
Take my advice and go listen to Michael’s podcast on itunes or on his site – you won’t be disappointed!
[…] latest domain name review from Domain Sherpa is out. After writing the article about the Domain Name Sherpas last week, I saw Michael was running a themed domain review this […]